From: http://news.indya.com/oct2001/dia0310survive.html

Manu Dhingra was one of the lucky few who was given a second chance to live after the terror attacks in the US.

But now, after a near death experience, the young securities broker enveloped in a fireball on the 82nd floor of the World Trade Center says he remembers thinking,

"Please, God, just make it quick".Dhingra, 27, survived with burns to a third of his body from his ankles to his face. He is the first person to be released from the New

York Weill Cornell Burn Centre.

Life, he says, can't be normal for him now and he can't explain why he has been given a second chance, when thousands of others perished.

He was "covered in a ball of fire" when he emerged from the lift for a day of trading at Andover Brokerage.

He first thought it was a bomb. After he realised he was alive and that he would get no help, being on the 82nd floor, he began walking down despite the pain.

He was assisted by co-workers - clearing the way as he walked down and fetching water for his dehydrating body.

The pain was so severe, Dhingra says, that he couldn't allow his friends and colleagues to even touch him.

The greatest help for him was that his friends deceived him about the trip down when he wanted to rest.

They told him to keep going, as there had just 10 floors left. He later found out that they were on the 61st floor.

Once down, he was helped into an ambulance. He knew the towers had been destroyed only after he was safe in hospital.